The recent "State of the Sector" report by the @unionworkersunion.org is important reading.

@itfglobalunion.bsky.social staff, like all union staff, want their organisations to live up to their full potential. Voting to take industrial action is a last resort when internal mechanisms fail.

A very long and important THREAD -

The real reason the US is invading Venezuela goes back to a deal Henry Kissinger made with Saudi Arabia in 1974.

And I'm going to explain why this is actually about the SURVIVAL of the US dollar itself.

Not drugs. Not terrorism. Not "democracy." 1/

"A Tory shadow minister has come under fire for acting as a lawyer for Roman Abramovich..."

Not just a shadow minister. The shadow Attorney General. The Tory tradition of prioritising support for billionaires above support for Ukraine flourishes

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

The voices of division in our country are growing louder.

Join us in London on 28 March for the #TOGETHER Against the Far Right national demonstration.

It’s up to us to unite against them.

Save the date and sign-up for updates here 👉 togetheralliance.org.uk

Statement from Unite UCU After once again being denied an observer, it has come to our attention that on Friday 7th of November UCU’s General Secretary, Jo Grady, told the National Executive Committee that there was only o…

Please see our statement for further information.
uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/s...

Following a report on @drjogrady.bsky.social's NEC update, we want to clarify that all dispute issues remain unresolved:
❌ trade union victimisation
❌ failure to negotiate a hybrid working policy
❌ failure to adequately deal with safety issues
❌ breach of recognition agreement & other policies.

Mahmood furious over asylum seeker taxi bills.

Overton window has been obliterated

The Labour Government reeling off the same far-right talking points on immigration. And look who is celebrating. The far-right.

There is a political alternative that won’t ever scapegoat those fleeing war, persecution and torture

join.greenparty.org.uk

"being English requires Anglo-Saxon lineage"

Angles - a Germanic tribe
Saxons - i.e. from Saxony, in Germany

Sorry to those with Celtic, Nordic, or Norman lineage ... you're not English either!

Photo showing an article from the latest Private Eye on the Unite dispute which exposes UCU management's hypocrisy, in particular highlighting a quote from an SMT member that strongly suggests our action short of a strike (ie, continue doing your job but office attendance remains voluntary as it has done over the last five years) is somehow irresponsible.

ASOS which is "work in the same way you’ve done for years" is not irresponsible. It's protecting our members until a fair & equitable hybrid policy is agreed.

UCU SMT then deducting 100% of daily pay from staff taking ASOS & undermining its own policy?

Now that’s irresponsible.

Being disabled shouldn’t mean you’re on a lower wage, or that you’re afraid to ask for support at work because it could hit you financially.

Having a reasonable adjustment should never lead to a pay cut.

But this is what’s happening to some UCU staff right now.

Short 🧵

#nokings
Portland frog brigade

Branch update Fifty UCU branches join calls for unconditional talks After over 50 UCU branches signed up to a statement calling on SMT and the General Secretary to meet with Unite for unconditional talks, branch…

We wondered last week whether @drjogrady.bsky.social would listen to @ucu.org.uk members, agree to unconditional talks & withdraw the threat of deductions for taking ASOS.

So we asked her. She didn’t reply herself, but SMT’s response, regrettably, was “no”.

uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/b...

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to: • Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions. • Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action. Signed, 25, no 37, no 46, no 50 UCU branch committees (and still counting)

Fifty branches, representing over 36% of UCU members, have now called for @drjogrady.bsky.social to enter unconditional negotiations & remove the threat of punitive deductions against staff.

Unite's repeated requests for such talks have had no response. Will she now listen to @ucu.org.uk members?

Amazing bit of 2019 footage this.

Frei doing a great job of trying to hold Farage to account as he and Nathan Gill go walkabout.

And I suspect Farage will come to regret his quip at the end about Russians if it does the rounds again.

Screenshot of email from UCU management which reads: ASOS Attendance Form - New Weekly Survey Starting Monday 22 September, all staff will receive an email with a link to the new ASOS attendance form. This short weekly survey is mandatory for all staff, whether you were on ASOS or not. Please make sure to complete it each week, failure to do so may result in pay deductions. The cut off each week will be Friday at 5pm.

Do you want to know how UCU senior management has responded to UCU branches calling on them to remove their threat of deductions? This is how.

How would you react?

uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/u...

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to: • Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions. • Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action. Signed, 25, no, 37, no, now 46 UCU branch committees (and still counting)

With another 9 @ucu.org.uk branches now calling on UCU to do the right thing we wonder if @drjogrady.bsky.social is listening to her members.

Trump celebrates as Jimmy Kimmel taken off air over Charlie Kirk comments Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are among those to cite "left-wing extremism" as a factor in Charlie Kirk's killing - and Jimmy Kimmel used his show to call out perceived hypocrisy among MAGA...

As straightforward a case as you can find of being cancelled not because of spewing hate or celebrating murder but because the most powerful political figures in the land did not like being criticised: news.sky.com/story/jimmy-...

Ignore Labour’s fake rage over vile messages about Diane Abbott. It knew there was toxicity. It condoned it | Nadine White I’ve seen the unredacted chats and other internal conversations, and I know the context. Believe me, there is more trouble to come, says journalist Nadine White

Ignore Labour’s fake rage over vile messages about Diane Abbott. It knew there was toxicity. It condoned it | Nadine White

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to: • Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions. • Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action. Signed, 25, no, 37 UCU branch committees (and counting)

Another 12 more UCU branches have signed (so far) today!

uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/u...

We'd like to send special solidarity back to @ucukent.bsky.social and @ucugreenwich.bsky.social for their support following their own worrying news from this week.

Display case showing DASD fuze, used to make cluster munitions work.

Display case shows the fuze has been removed.

Paid a visit to the London arms fair today...

Found a component for cluster munitions, banned under international law, on full display.

Confirmed by staff, and removed swiftly by event organisers. But what else remains?

These vile weapons should never be peddled in the UK.

We call on Jo Grady and UCU SMT to: • Enter negotiations with Unite UCU without preconditions. • Stop the threat of punitive deductions for ASOS - this breaches UCU and TUC policy and only serves to undermine all of us, not least those UCU members currently involved in legal test cases against punitive deductions after taking lawful industrial action. Signed, 25 UCU branch committees (and counting)

Sometimes solutions are easy @drjogrady.bsky.social & @ucu.org.uk

Let’s sit down and talk without conditions or threats that damage everyone. It’s time to resolve this dispute.

Our statement, with support from the following branch committees:

No other party says the basic truth: migration is good for Britain.

The real problem? Inequality, soaring bills, underfunded public services.

That’s driven by the greed of the super rich and the Labour government who serve them - not by migrants.

The Global Sumud Flotilla for Gaza said that one of its main boats was struck by a drone in Tunisian waters, though all six passengers and crew are safe. Brazilian activist and flotilla member Thiago Avila said that the alleged attack had brought the mission to a temporary stop.

Revealed: how Boris Johnson traded PM contacts for global business deals Exclusive: Leak exposes how former leader has used publicly subsidised office to manage commercial interests

The grift goes on.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Nigel Farage is the biggest charlatan in British political history.

And here's what his constitutents in Clacton really think:

UCU: Fighting punitive ASOS deductions Motion from UCU Congress 2022-2023: Fighting punitive ASOS deductions

UCU policy: “To work with the TUC and other TUs to campaign for a change to the law to prevent such deductions, including lobbying government and opposition parties”

Maybe while @drjogrady.bsky.social is at @tuc.org.uk in Brighton she can work on thi… oh!

policy.web.ucu.org.uk/motion-infor...

Jo Grady calling Queen Mary management "vindictive" for making deductions from UCU members taking action short of a strike: Jo Grady, UCU's general secretary, said Queen Mary's senior management had "launched a vindictive attack" on its members, "punishing them for taking part in lawful industrial action" and "cementing its reputation as the worst university employer in the UK" She said: "It is wrong to do this at any time and all the more deplorable as staff struggle to make ends meet in a cost of living crisis."

Screen shot of the article from The Guardian about Queen Mary ASOS deductions in which Jo Grady is quoted

🚨 Third consecutive vote for industrial action 🚨

✅ strike action: 76%
✅ action short of a strike (ASOS): 80%
✅ turnout: 77%

ASOS begins today with @ucu.org.uk threatening staff: "We'll deduct your wages."

Double standards and vindictive attacks undermine us all.

#ReclaimUCU

Video shows a blanket knitted by Irish activists as a tribute to Palestinian children killed in Gaza.

Each square of the blanket represents 10 of the nearly 19,000 children killed by Israeli forces in the besieged enclave.

Suspended from work for being victim of disinformation wtf

Obviously the smears against this man are incredibly libellous - and it says a lot about access to the law that he wouldn't be able to afford to Lord McAlpine these fuckers - but at what point does the government clock that it needs to get a grip on this raging online fire of fascist hate?